Ballet Idaho announced their February repertory will include a new ballet to the music of Fleetwood Mac and choreography by company dancer Daniel Ojeda. The new work will have its world premiere as part of the three-ballet program, Fleetwood Mac Collection, at the Velma V. Morrison Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, February 9 and Saturday, February 10, 2018.

The currently untitled Fleetwood Mac ballet joins two other ballets on the program. Agon, a collaboration between the composer Igor Stravinsky and the choreographer George Balanchine was new 60 years ago on December 1 of this year. The New York Times has said of this ballet, "The combination of formality and intimacy has a charge both erotic and strenuous."

Also on the Fleetwood Mac Collection program is Raymonda's Wedding, with choreography by Ballet Idaho artistic director Peter Anastos, after Petipa and Nureyev.

Individual performance tickets for Fleetwood Mac Collection are on sale November 29, 2017 through www.BalletIdaho.org or at the Morrison Center Box Office for $38.00 - $58.00 plus ticketing fees.

Since 1972, Ballet Idaho has enriched lives through classical ballet and served as a dynamic reflection of the Boise community. Led by Artistic Director Peter Anastos, Ballet Idaho is the only professional ballet company and academy in the state of Idaho, bringing together the highest level of dance excellence with a commitment to education and training. For more information, visit www.BalletIdaho.org.

Any music fan will be aware of how vinyl records have become strangely fashionable again, with the retro format enjoying a resurgence as an alternative mp3 downloads and streaming. But now it seems that its counterpart, the cassette, may been enjoying a similar resurgence. According to Official Charts Company data, the humble tape is the fastest-growing format in the UK at the moment. Sales of cassette albums have doubled in the space of a year - up 112% compared to 2016, thanks in part to big name acts like Jay Z , Royal Blood and Lana Del Rey releasing limited runs as a collector’s item for fans. The biggest seller so far has been the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy - ‘Awesone Mix vol. 1’ - the retro collection featuring tracks such as ELO’s ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’. It has also sold more than 70,000 copies on vinyl. More than 80 albums have been released on cassette already this year, leading to over 20,000 sales to date. That's the highest annual total since 2006, bucking a trend which saw an all-time low (of less than 4,000 units sold) in 2012. The best-selling non-compilation cassette so far this year is Kasabian’s album For Crying Out Loud, with 1,026 sales to date. It’s a small but not insignificant figure, given its limited run and exclusive availability on the band’s official website. "That's the best thing I've ever heard," Serge Pizzorno told OfficialCharts.com, adding: "It's about fan loyalty, I think. It's about having a physical object. One of your favourite bands has put out an album and you want it on a different format that you can hold in your hands. It's nice to see the sleeve and the artwork in a different way as well." Other releases whose cassette versions re selling well include albums by Enter Shikari, Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott, Arcade Fire, Gary Numan and Blondie. However, cassettes will have some way to go before they get back to their status as top-selling format, 27 years ago - long before CDs, and the internet, had taken hold. Still, with vinyl's rebirth, and with Christmas coming up, who knows?

All Killer, No Filler: CBC listeners let us know which albums are solid all the way through
Hundreds of requests were made — here's what made the cut

In an age of iPods, Spotify and hit singles, CBC's On the Coast spent the last three weeks celebrating full albums.

Due to hundreds of album requests from listeners, the On the Coast music feature All Killer, No Filler was extended beyond the normal one-week stint and became one of the longest running music features in the radio show's history.

The request was put out by host Stephen Quinn for listeners to recommend albums that didn't contain a single track worth skipping. In other words, the album had to be made of all killer songs, and no filler songs.

Hundreds of suggested albums had to be boiled down. Records chosen were selected because they had received multiple recommendations.

Here are the albums that had songs played on the show:

R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People.
George Michael's Faith.
Neil Young's After the Goldrush.
The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.
Alanis Morrissette's Jagged Little Pill.
Radiohead's The Bends.
Paul Simon's Graceland.
Carole King's Tapestry.Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.
Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman's Bat out of Hell.
AC/DC's Back in Black.
Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
David Bowie's Hunky Dory.
The Tragically Hip's Day for Night.
Amy Winehouse's Back to Black.
"It was so great to celebrate these groups' musicianship," said CBC music reporter and former Polaris Music Prize judge Lisa Christiansen. "I loved the opportunity to revisit these albums."

Stay tuned for On the Coast's music feature next week.

The show is aired in B.C.'s Lower Mainland on 88.1 FM, 690 AM Radio One every weekday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. PT.

The soundtrack for James Gunn's Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 has been nominated for a Grammy Award.

The album, which includes classic tunes from Electric Light Orchestra, Fleetwood Mac, George Harrison, and more, also includes a sole original recording, "Guardians Inferno," featuring David Hasselhoff.

While the soundtrack album as a whole earned a nomination, "Guardians Inferno" missed out on a best original song nod.

Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix vol. 2 is in competition with the soundtracks for Baby Driver, Hidden Figures, La La Land, and Moana for the trophy.

The first Awesome Mix soundtrack, for the original Guardians of the Galaxy, was nominated for the same Grammy but lost out to the soundtrack for Frozen.

The 60th Grammy Awards will air live from New York’s Madison Square Garden Jan. 28 on CBS.

You can see Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 on Blu-ray, DVD, or digital now. The movie comes to Netflix in December.

After readers wrote to The News Journal last year with their most-wanted acts for Firefly Music Festival -- with Muse topping the list -- fans got a surprise when the English rockers were named a headliner two months later.

This time around for our annual Fantasy Firefly poll, nearly 130 fans responded to our call for the top three acts they'd want to see this summer in The Woodlands near Dover International Speedway.

And for the first time, we have a tie. (See the breakdown below.)

While the lineup is not expected to be released until later this winter, that doesn't mean that Firefly die-hards can't have a little fun in the meantime, fantasizing about which of their musical heroes will come to little ol' Delaware June 15-18.

The pressure is on for Firefly to deliver this year, perhaps more than others.

Last year's sixth annual fest boasted five headliners for the first time --The Weeknd, Muse, Twenty One Pilots, Chance the Rapper and Bob Dylan -- but attendance was noticeably down. (Festival officials dutifully reported that the festival had one again drawn 90,000 fans, but multiple on-site vendors put the number closer to 60,000.)

It was the first year that Firefly re-launched itself as a "fan-curated festival," allowing fans to vote online for everything from acts and food.

In the past, the festival's biggest moments have come from its biggest names, such as Paul McCartney's dazzling headlining set in 2015 and the Foo Fighters' thunderous romp on the main stage the year prior.

While we await official word on this year's roster, let's dig into who fans want to see and speculate on whether it will happen.

Fleetwood Mac (25 votes): Wait. What? It's 2017, not 1977. Why is Fleetwood Mac tied atop the list this year? Because Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John and Christine McVie are preparing to re-emerge in 2018, already announcing that they will tour. Nostalgia will be running high, especially since the act is re-issuing its self-titled 1975 album next month, which boasts hits such as "Landslide" and “Rhiannon.” Plus, Nicks is having a renaissance of her own, especially with the younger set thanks to appearances on FX's "American Horror Story" and NBC's "The Voice" in recent years. Could the act be eyeing big money festival dates for the summer? Absolutely. Would young and old alike stream to the festival to see them? No doubt.

Eminem (25 votes): Speaking of a renaissance, Eminem has also re-emerged, planning to release "Revival" on Dec. 15 -- his first new album in four years. Even though the album isn't out yet, Marshall Mathers has already put his mark on 2017, most notably with his ferocious freestyle attacking President Trump on the BET Hip Hop Awards in October. "And any fan of mine who's a supporter of his/I'm drawing in the sand a line, you're either for or against," he seethed. It's also been four years since Eminem launched a full-scale tour, so odds are he'll be on the road this summer.

Pearl Jam (18 votes): Each year, Pearl Jam either wins (2015) or places in our Fantasy Firefly poll. After watching the Foo Fighters bring '90s rock (and Grotto Pizza shout-outs) to Dover, it's easy to visualize Eddie Vedder & Co. delivering as epic a sweat-filled set as the Foos. But not this year. PJ is in Europe that weekend playing the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands and London's 02 Arena.

Coldplay (11 votes): Will Chris Martin come to Delaware to perform for the second time in recent years? Probably not. Martin, who performed at Beau Biden's funeral service at Wilmington's St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in 2015, wrapped up a massive 122-show world tour last month -- a tour that started back in March 2016. With no new album and much-needed rest time ahead, don't expect to feel a rush of blood to the head in Dover this summer. Plus, they don't need the money. Their tour just grossed $523 million according to promoter Live Nation, making it the third-highest grossing tour of all time behind U2’s $736 million 360 tour (2009-2011) and The Rolling Stones' $558 million A Bigger Bang tour (2005-2007).

Arcade Fire (9 votes): Another perennial Firefly fan favorite, the rollicking Canadian six-piece are known for their exciting leave-it-all-on-the-stage live shows -- something they have never brought to Firefly. Win Butler's band has been touring since June behind the band's (critically panned) album "Everything Now," which was released in July. The indie rockers have a European tour on the books through the end of April and no other dates listed, so it's a possibility.

U2 (8 votes): When U2 announced its tour behind the just-released "Songs of Experience," the Irish rock band's 14th studio album, the rumors started to spread immediately. Even though Bono and the boys have shows booked for Firefly weekend (Philadelphia on Thursday and Washington, D.C,. on Sunday), fans were buzzing that they might squeeze a Delaware drop-in. Don't count on it. The band would have to perform shows on back-to-back nights, which they are only doing on this tour a few times and only when they are in the same venue for multiple shows.

Arctic Monkeys (8 votes): It's been more than three years since baby-faced frontman Alex Turner strode on stage with his slicked back hair and delivered one of the weekend's best sets, kicking it off with the swagger-filled single "Do I Wanna Know." It obviously left a mark with fans who want the English rockers back. With no new album since that sunny summer day in 2014 and no tour dates listed, it doesn't look promising for a redux in 2018.

The Rolling Stones (7 votes): If you think Baby Boomers would storm the Firefly gates to see Fleetwood Mac, just imagine if the Stones brought their seemingly ageless stage show to Delaware for the first time ever? Fresh from this fall's quick 13-show European tour, they have no other tour dates on the docket. And since 2016's "Blue & Lonesome" was their first studio album in 11 years, we're not betting on them having a new batch of songs to push by this summer.

Lady Gaga (7 votes): As the #MeToo movement grows, Lady Gaga would be an especially timely booking. After all, she was the one who sang "Til It Happens to You" at the 2016 Academy Awards accompanied on-stage by 50 sexual assault victims. (Vice President Joe Biden introduced her.) With Florence + the Machine as the festival's *only* female-fronted headliner out of the 22 that have rocked Firefly since 2012, Firefly is in desperate need of some one-stage girl power. After her halftime Super Bowl performance earlier this year, Gaga waited until the summer to launch her North American tour, which wraps up in Utah next week. With Lady Gaga starring in Bradley Coopers' directorial debut ("A Star is Born") in May, she'll most likely be busily doing press for the film instead of wiggling in Dover.

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).

FANTASY FIREFLY '18 RESULTS
25 -- Fleetwood Mac, Eminem

18 -- Pearl Jam

11 -- Coldplay

9 -- Arcade Fire

8 -- U2, Arctic Monkeys

7 -- Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga

6 -- Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars, Lana Del Rey, Panic at the Disco!

FIREFLY MUSIC FESTIVAL TICKETS
The festival's discounted $199 pre-sale tickets sold out months ago. There are currently no festival passes for sale. However, passes usually go on sale around the same time as the festival announces its line-up, which is expected later this winter.

nice! i was sure it was going to be Rumours, so pleasantly surprised it was Tusk!

"Fun. frontman and solo star Nate Ruess took our On the Record challenge, in which he was given 45 seconds to talk about one of his all-time favorite records. Here, he discusses Fleetwood Mac's _Tusk_, and its powerfully emotional dichotomy between anger (from Lindsey Buckingham) and sadness (from Stevie Nicks). "They turned around and made something very raw, very earnest," he tells us. Tune in for more, and be sure to check out Nate Ruess' solo debut album, Grand Romantic."

Digital streaming behind biggest rise in UK music sales for two decadesPlatforms such as Apple Music and Spotify plus renaissance in vinyl records help fuel fastest annual growth since 1998

A surge in music streaming via digital services including Spotify and Apple Music has prompted the fastest growth in UK music consumption since the late 1990s.

UK consumers bought the equivalent of more than 135m albums last year across all formats – which include CDs, vinyl, digital downloads and streams from subscription services.

That was a 9.5% increase on 2016, the biggest annual rise since 1998, when the charts were dominated by artists including All Saints, Massive Attack and the Verve.

The growth in buying and listening to music was driven by audio streaming, which leaped by 51.5% to just over 68m albums and helped offset falling sales of digital downloads and CDs.

Ed Sheeran was the most streamed artist after the release of his album Divide, and his Shape of You was also the most streamed individual track.

For the first time more than half of the total number of albums bought and listened to were streamed, according to the latest figures from the UK music industry trade body, the British Phonographic Industry [BPI], based on data from the Official Charts Company.

Album equivalent sales

The value of music sales soared 10% to £1.2bn, helping to lift the total value of the UK entertainment market to a new all-time high of £7.2bn in 2017, its third consecutive year of growth after a decade of decline, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association (Era).

The continuing vinyl revival, which made turntables one of the must-have gadgets for 2017, also boosted sales. Hipsters, parents re-living their youth and young music fans searching for a more authentic sound together bought 4.1m vinyl albums – the highest number since 1991, when Simply Red’s Stars topped the album chart and Nirvana’s Nevermind was released.

Sheeran’s Divide was the top selling album on every format. Other vinyl topsellers for 2017 included Liam Gallagher’s As You Were, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, which was originally released in 1977, and Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black from 2006.

Not every format is on the increase: CD album sales dropped 12%, while downloads, using services such as iTunes and Amazon, dived 23.4%, according to the BPI and Official Charts Company. But cassette tapes also made a surprise comeback, registering a 43% rise in sales, as the soundtrack to the film Guardians of the Galaxy and the rock act Kasabian produced popular albums on the almost defunct format. However, the number of cassettes sold last year was still only 22,000.

British artists dominated the top sellers, with eight of 2017’s top 10 albums across all formats. The chart toppers ranged from Sheeran to Rag’n’Bone Man, Sam Smith and Little Mix. The musical theatre star Michael Ball’s latest album with the tenor Alfie Boe was also a top seller, alongside Stormzy and Liam Gallagher.

Geoff Taylor, the chief executive of BPI, said the rise of strong British acts was driving the growth in demand, but he warned that long-term growth was reliant on the industry persuading all digital platforms to pay fairly for their use of music and government action to limit illegal sites.

Kim Bayley, the chief executive officer of the Entertainment Retailers Association, said 24/7 access to music, video and games was driving demand for entertainment.

While CD album sales have dropped, vinyl album sales increased year-on-year to 4.1m

“In the past the growth of the market tended to be dependent on the release schedules of games publishers, film studios and record labels.

“Now we are seeing a market also driven by digital platforms and technologies,” Bayley said.

Digital sales of films rose 22.2% last year, according to Era. That offset a 17% dive in sales of physical movie formats, such as DVD and Blu-ray, and the total value of the market rose 7.5% to £2.7bn. Only £40m was spent on DVD rental, down another 16% in just 12 months.

The top selling film across all formats was Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, ahead of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the musical animation Moana and JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, according to the Official Charts Company.

Physical formats are still popular in the games market. Successful titles such as Fifa 18 and Call of Duty: WWII, as well as the launch of Nintendo’s Switch device, lifted sales of console games for the first time in nine years. Total sales rose 9.6% to £3.3bn.

“Physical [formats] may no longer be the default option for many people that it once was, but it remains a substantial £2bn business,” said Bayley.

“Where physical really comes into its own is where it offers something distinctive and additional to content, whether it is the tactile experience of vinyl or the simple fact that physical objects work well as gifts. I remain confident that physical entertainment formats will continue to be with us for years to come.”

Billboard 200 Chart Moves: Def Leppard's 'Hysteria' Back In Top 40 After 28 Years

— Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac – No. 132 — Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album re-enters at No. 132 with 6,000 units (up 3,621 percent), following its deluxe reissue on Jan. 19. The album — which was the band’s first No. 1 on the chart — was reissued in various remastered editions, some with many bonus tracks. All of the permutations of the album, including its original version, are tracked together for charting purposes. Fleetwood Mac’s return to the chart grants the set its first visit to the list since 2012, and its highest rank since 1981.

The Fleetwood Mac redux is the latest expansive archival reissue from the act, following Rumours (in 2013), Tusk (2015), Mirage (2016) and Tango in the Night (2017).

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Why Rock Stars Are Suddenly Retiring
From Elton John to Paul Simon and Neil Diamond, a generation of elders searches for a new way to say goodbye

The rock world has never seen a rash of retirements like this. In the past few weeks, some of rock & roll's most legendary performers have declared they're giving up the endless highway. Elton John announced his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, the final curtain for the ultimate showman. Paul Simon set a date for his last gig in London's Hyde Park. Neil Diamond, already well into his 50th-anniversary tour, immediately cancelled the rest of his shows on doctors' orders, after getting diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson revealed, "We have no plans to tour or record any more. We're basically done. After 41 years, we felt it was enough."

The concept of "enough" is always exotic in rock & roll – but it's definitely a shock for so many legends to say goodnight at the same time. It's a historic moment where we're witnessing a sea change in how rock stars face their golden years. It's not like these veterans have lost their mojo – anyone lucky enough to see Diamond last year can tell you he hasn't lost a step. And some road warriors still keep peaking onstage as they push 80, from Paul McCartney to Smokey Robinson to Bob Dylan to Fleetwood Mac. But for others, as Simon admitted, quitting feels like "something of a relief." So these elder statesmen are trying to invent something that's never really existed until now – the rock & roll retirement.

It used to be that farewell gigs inspired mostly skeptical amusement. High-priced goodbyes are a classic show-biz trick; Cher's farewell tour is old enough to vote. But this time it's different. "I'm not Cher, even though I like wearing her clothes," Elton John said at his press conference. "This is the end." He's not kidding. "My priorities in my life are now my children, my husband and my family. I want to be home."

It's also the end of the line for Joan Baez, nearly 60 years after her 1959 debut. "Number one: It's too hard to sing," she told Rolling Stone's Jonathan Bernstein in January. "Nobody can really imagine the effort it takes to keep up with these vocal cords. ... I can't do **** in the upper range anymore." Lynyrd Skynyrd just announced their "Last of the Street Survivors" tour – 40 years after the band got wiped out in a plane crash. (Guitarist Garry Rossington is the only crash survivor left in Skynyrd. Fly high, free bird.) At 87, Sonny Rollins' pulmonary fibrosis has forced him to put down his mighty horn. Ozzy Osbourne, who quit with "No More Tours" in the 1990s, then surprised absolutely nobody by coming back for his Retirement Sucks Tour, will spend the next few years on his latest final trek – with the tongue-in-cheek title, "No More Tours 2."

Why now? Of course, the music world has lost too many legends in the past couple of years. But two deaths really seem to loom over this moment. Prince and Tom Petty were younger than most of the new retirees, but both died from the same painkiller – Fentanyl – after years of touring harder than their aging bones could handle. For years we all saw Prince work magic onstage nobody else could do; it wasn't until his tragic death that the world learned how he'd punished his body. Petty spent last summer on tour before finding out his hip was broken; the day he got the news, just a week after his final gig, he succumbed to an accidental overdose of Fentanyl, oxycodone, generic Xanax and other medications. Their deaths are a wake-up call for both musicians and fans. None of us want to see our heroes go out that way.

It's no secret that the road takes a toll – as Robbie Robertson said in The Last Waltz, over 40 years ago, "It's a goddamn impossible way of life." But the touring business is increasingly fixated on how to keep the old guys on the road – in some cases, even after death. Elton John joked about asking his children, "When Daddy dies, promise me there won't be a hologram of me going around the world doing concerts." Yet even Elton – a trouper who understands the show must go on – realizes this might not be his call. "Who knows? They may go broke and put me back on the ****ing stage."

Randy Newman has summed it up perfectly: "Musicians keep going. There is nobody applauding at home."

When the stars step back, it doesn't take them long to discover how much they miss the bright lights and rowdy crowds. "My job is the greatest job in the world," Neil Diamond told an L.A. crowd last summer. "I sing. You hear. You applaud. I sing louder. I go wherever the noise is." Those of us who kept returning to see Diamond loved being part of that beautiful noise. We knew that if we showed up, he would too. (Just last summer, after years as a Neil-head, I finally got my first live "If You Know What I Mean." It was worth the wait.) "I'm one of those people who would rather sit on the beach and do nothing, but I can't," he told Rolling Stone's Andy Greene in 2016. "I'm addicted to the packing and the unpacking."

That's why the vets rarely walk away from the life, no matter how miserable it gets. They go where the noise is.

The Who made the cover of the Rolling Stone in 1982 announcing their last tour – "before we become parodies of ourselves," as Roger Daltrey explained. My copy of this issue is older than Nicki Minaj, but the Who will spend most of 2018 out there in Oakland and Dayton and Rochester, rolling through "See Me, Feel Me" one more time. Who can blame them? Only a prude holds it against rockers who keep on keeping on. What else would you want them to do? For players and hustlers, tonight's the night.

David Bowie seemed to retire every few years in the 1970s, making cheerfully insincere statements like "I've rocked my last roll." (As it turned out, he scored the final-curtain knockout of all time with Blackstar.) Eric Clapton did a solemn Rolling Stone interview in the summer of 2001, officially hanging up his keys to the highway. "This is definitely the last time," he vowed. "I get indigestion. I get tired. ... I can't play long solos anymore without boring myself." God wailing "Layla" with heartburn – who would wish that on anyone? So, crazy as it seems, most of us believed him, just as he surely believed himself. And needless to say, Clapton is playing European dates this summer after touring the U.S., Japan, Dubai and Thailand in recent years. The road goes on forever.

But what we're seeing now is something new. Back before rock stars got serious about heath and fitness and sobriety, they weren't living long enough to worry about how to stop. Now some of them – Elton for one – hope to keep making music, without pushing their banged-up bodies on tour. Others are breaking their wands for good. Simon remains open to "the occasional performance in a (hopefully) acoustically pristine hall." Complaining about the sound guy at your comeback gigs when you haven't even finished retiring – now that's peak Simon.

In The Wild Bunch, grizzled outlaw William Holden wants to make one last score and then back off. Ernest Borgnine asks, "Back off to what?" That's the question that has kept driving rockers on the road, even to the point where it breaks them. Almost every veteran in The Last Waltz got back out there eventually, some of them dying there; now that Diamond has retired, nobody knows who'll end up the last one waltzing. (My money's on the stubborn Irish bastard in the sequinned pants.) But a generation of elders is searching for new ways to ride into the sunset, with goodbyes that do justice to their musical legacy as well as their audience. There's never been a template for how to abdicate – rock stars have a long history of failing to figure this out, which is one of the traits that makes them rock stars. So it's a journey into the unknown. But for these performers, now's the time. Goodbye, yellow brick road.